History Of Brighton And Environs - Online Book

From The Earliest Known Period To The Present Time.

stances were reduced to a very low ebb, the property of his second wife, who survives him, having been barely sufficient to maintain them. Subsequently to this, too, when pecuniary misfortunes were heaped on him, the estimation in which he was held was evinced by a private subscription being voluntarily entered into among his old friends and acquaintances, and others who had had opportunities of appreciating this value, by which a considerable and very acceptable sum was raised for his benefit. To the rest of his misfortunes was added the death of his younger son, Mr Frederick Slight, late Seoretary to the London, Brighton and South-Coast Railway Company (his elder son, Samuel, having died some years previously). His death took place on Sunday evening, at his residence in Upper Brunswick Place, aged 77. Few men have had talents and oppor­tunities for achieving what Mr Slight has done in the course of a long life, and few, perhaps, have received less in the way of pecuniary reward; and no one who remembers what Brighton was fifty years ago, as compared with what it was fifteen years since, and who recollect the share which was taken by him in effecting its improvements during that time (the details of which would exceed the limits of the present notice), can fail to be grateful to his memory for his persevering efforts to render this town one of the most favoured and famous of the places of public resort in the kingdom."

The first Petty Sessions of Magistrates was held in September, 1812, at the Old Ship Hotel,—Mr Serjeant Runnington being the Chairman. They were next removed in 1822 to the New Inn Tavern, now the Clarence Hotel ; afterwards to the Sea House Hotel; and subsequently to the new Town Hall, the first stone of which was laid by Thos. Read Kemp, Esq., in the year 1880, and the first public ball after its opening was a